Jarod Bufe - Brighter Days (2025) [Hi-Res]

Brighter Days finds saxophonist and composer Jarod Bufe back at the helm of the seasoned quartet featured on his critically acclaimed 2018 debut New Spaces (OA2 Records). The group is comprised of some of the most in-demand musicians on the contemporary Chicago scene, each a bandleader in their own right: Matt Ulery (bass), Jon Deitemyer (drums), and Tim Stine (guitar). To help realize his vision, Bufe tapped the production talents of longtime friend and collaborator Nick Mazzarella, who has been refining his modern-vintage approach to recording with engineer Dave Vettraino at Chicago’s Palisades studio in recent years. Together the artists tackle nine new compositions penned by Bufe in response to the pandemic with a unity of conception and ease that can only develop night after night on the bandstand.

Many of these nights were at FitzGerald’s Sidebar, a long-standing, laid back venue in historic Berwyn just outside Chicago. Bufe’s quartet maintained a residency there from 2012 through 2019 and has returned regularly since the club reopened post lockdown. “The residency functioned as a workshop to develop material and rapport, which led to our first record” says Bufe. Brighter Days documents the group’s evolution since that release. “The style is similar, but there is greater cohesion and depth in the new performances,” relates Bufe, attributing this to not only more time on the bandstand together but also “the ways in which everyone evolved individually by enduring COVID-19.” For Bufe the material also channels that experience; in his words it “was inspired by pandemic lockdown reflections on the role of music in expressing and providing hope in dark times.”

“Midnight” sets the mood immediately with an ominous minor vamp and angular tenor melody. The quartet creates space for the leader’s explorations, guitarist Stine dropping out briefly before returning with spare but driving rhythmic comping and a fluid, conversational solo of his own. Interestingly, “Window Well” bookends the album with a similar feeling, but the brooding minor vamp it begins with each chorus resolves into a more upbeat, blues inflected release, offering up that glimmer of hope that Bufe mentioned.

The composer captures the despair and frustration of many musicians (and non-musicians) during the pandemic with titles like “Forgotten,” “Loss of Agency,” and “Fighting for Hope,” but he mines beauty and optimism from these dark sources. A bright waltz that wouldn’t be out of place on a Bill Evans trio record, “The Forgotten Before” features lyrical, fluent solos from Ulery and Stine. Bufe’s sound and phrasing evoke Joe Lovano and other modern masters while remaining deeply rooted in the tradition.

Similarly, the soulful backbeat of “Fighting for Hope” seem to indicate that the fight is far from hopeless. “Loss of Agency” captures a simmering, bluesy vibe reminiscent of John Scofield’s1990s band, one of the great guitar-tenor quartets. The quartet swings hard behind the leader’s muscular solo, his throaty tenor sound expressive and compelling.

Two of the remaining works are elegiac in nature. “Goodnight, My Brooklyn Prince” is for the late saxophonist Mark Colby, a client, teacher, collaborator, and close friend of Bufe’s for many years. The tender ballad, rendered here in unison with Stine’s guitar, showcases the leader’s poignant upper register and lush low end. A fitting tribute, it is exactly the sort of heart-on-sleeve melody Colby would have shined on. “Goodbye Marlene,” for the mother of the Bufe’s oldest friend, begins with an eloquent tenor cadenza segueing into a loping melody statement with Ulery’s rich bass that is more nostalgic and even celebratory rather than mournful. Here and throughout his latest album, Brighter Days prevail in Jarod Bufe’s musical vision.

JAROD BUFE tenor saxophone
TIME STINE guitar
MATT ULERY bass
JON DEITEMYER drums